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Teenage Creative Writers’ Program, Module 1

Handout 1.1 Developing characters
What in their past has shaped them?
Family ● Parents’ relationship to each other and to the character
(and ● Siblings
non-family, if ● Birth order
appropriate) ● Larger family (grandparents, cousins, etc.)
● Family characteristics
● Family expectations
● Family secrets and/or family pride
● Class
● Ethnicity (especially if different from the dominant ethnicity in
that place)
● Religion (especially if different from the dominant religion in that
place)
● Money
● Politics
● Beliefs (e.g. attitudes to gender, sex, race, class)
● Customs
● Habits and eccentricities (what makes this family different to
others like them?)
● Home (where, one or many, etc.)
Life elements ● Large-scale events or social trends (e.g. war, depression,
technology, feminism)
● Education: primary, secondary, tertiary, technical, non-formal,
autodidactic
● What are/were they good at?
● What are/were they bad at?
● Goals at different ages
● Achievements at different ages
● Traumas/successes/difficulties/comforts
● Loves and hates:
o People
o Food
o Fashion/clothes
o Pets/animals/insects
o Places
o Things/objects
o Music
o Books

© Australian Writers’ Centre and Pamela Freeman. This material can only be used for the purposes of
teaching courses for the Australian Writers’ Centre. Distribution of this material in any form is not
permitted without written permission of the Australian Writers’ Centre. WritersCentre.com.au
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o Entertainment/TV/films/games/other
o Hobbies
● Key moments which shaped them
Friends ● Who, when, how and how close?
● Develop any close friend characters in detail
● Consider: first friend, first love, first lover, lost friends, lost loves
Embodiment What are their physical characteristics?
Consider:
● Height
● Weight
● Colouring (especially if related to ethnicity)
● Fitness
● Shape of face
● Hair (don’t forget hair happens elsewhere than the head!)
● Skin tone
● Shape of mouth
● Jaw
● Eyes
● Nose
● Ears
● Eyebrows
● Shape of hands and fingers, feet and toes
● Physical abilities, including talents such as singing, dancing,
sports, balance, co-ordination, eyesight, hearing, touch
● Physical disabilities of every kind, from vision to chronic illness
● Attractiveness or otherwise to a) family b) themselves and c)
others
● Posture, both sitting, standing and walking. How do they look
to others? How does it feel to themselves?
● How do they feel about their body and what it can/can’t do?
Mentation ● How do they think?
and feeling ● How do they feel?
● How logical/impulsive/controlled are they?
● How empathic/compassionate/hardhearted/selfish?
● How clever? Any disabilities?
● What areas are they clever in/talented at/hopeless at?
● How perceptive of others/blind to others?
● How humorous, and what form does the humour take?
● Are they intellectually curious/incurious/insatiable/bored?
● Are they a risk-taker?

© Australian Writers’ Centre and Pamela Freeman. This material can only be used for the purposes
of teaching courses for the Australian Writers’ Centre. Distribution of this material in any form is not
permitted without written permission of the Australian Writers’ Centre. WritersCentre.com.au
 3

What in the present is driving them?

Environment ●
World/setting
Home ●
●
Workplace
●
Key locations attached to events or feelings
●
Travel: regular (e.g. commuting) and/or special (holidays,
excursions, outings)
Embodiment ● Has their body changed? Recently or in the past? How do
they feel about this?
● Has their body stayed the same but the requirements
placed on it changed? How do they feel about this?
Activities ● Work
● Hobbies
● Sport
● Leisure time
● Habits
Personality ● Who have they become as a result of their past?
● What face do they present to the world?
● How do they show this?
● What do they conceal from the world?
● Are they successful at this concealment?
● How would their friends describe them?
● How would strangers describe them?
● How would they describe themselves?
Family As above, plus
● Partner or lack thereof
● Children, biological or other
● Non-biological family (e.g. flatmates, quasi-parents, etc.)
● Note particularly how the present family differs from their
past family
Friends and ● Day to day encounters
others ● Long term friends/enemies/colleagues
● Acquaintances who may have an impact on their life
● Antagonists
Survival and ● Source of income
daily life ● Living situation
● Class and money
● Satisfaction or dissatisfaction with situation
● Threats
● Supports
Loves and ● Loves and hates: who, what, why
hate, needs ● Reaction to loving or being loved
and wants ● Reaction to rejection or having to reject
● Desires (may be self-contradictory)

© Australian Writers’ Centre and Pamela Freeman. This material can only be used for the purposes
of teaching courses for the Australian Writers’ Centre. Distribution of this material in any form is not
permitted without written permission of the Australian Writers’ Centre. WritersCentre.com.au
 4

● Obstacles to desires (if a person, develop their character

thoroughly)
● Direction of desires (e.g. self-defeating, injurious to health
or happiness, or tending towards self-development and
happiness)
● Should they get what they desire? (Ethics, effect on them
and others)
Fears ● What, who, why
● Rational or irrational
● Likely to occur or not
● Ready for the occurrence or not
● What part of the person does the fear threaten?

What do they hope for their future?

And how do they plan to get it?

© Australian Writers’ Centre and Pamela Freeman. This material can only be used for the purposes
of teaching courses for the Australian Writers’ Centre. Distribution of this material in any form is not
permitted without written permission of the Australian Writers’ Centre. WritersCentre.com.au
 5

Handout 1.2 Titles, authors and passages

mentioned in this module
● The Black Dress ​by Pamela Hart
● Desert Lake ​by Pamela Hart
● Ember and Ash​ by Pamela Hart
● Victor’s Challenge ​by Pamela Hart
● Wonder​ by R J Palacio
● The Hunger Games​ by Suzanne Collins
● Big Little Lies ​by Liane Moriarty
● Harry Potter​ series by J.K. Rowling
● Anne of Green Gables​ L.M. Montgomery
● Sherlock Holmes​ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
● John Green
● Jodi Picoult
● Suzanne Gervay
● Helen Garner

© Australian Writers’ Centre and Pamela Freeman. This material can only be used for the purposes
of teaching courses for the Australian Writers’ Centre. Distribution of this material in any form is not
permitted without written permission of the Australian Writers’ Centre. WritersCentre.com.au